The Expanse Reading Order

There are just nine novels in The Expanse, and they are numbered, so reading them in order is pretty easy.

However, there are also a number of novellas and short stories, available for individual purchase from ebook retailers like Amazon, and now collected in the book Memory's Legion. Some are prequels to the main series, showing what characters did before them; others are follow-ups to specific novels, showing more of characters and situations from the main series.

Possible Order #1: Release Date

The obvious, spoiler-free, way to read them is release order:

1. Book One: Leviathan Wakes (June 2011)
2. Short Story: The Butcher of Anderson Station (Oct. 2011)
   
3. Book Two: Caliban's War (June 2012)
4. Novella: Gods of Risk (Sept. 2012) 
5. Short Story: "Drive" (Nov. 2012)
   
6. Book Three: Abaddon's Gate (June 2013)
7. Novella: The Churn (Apr. 2014)
   
8. Book Four: Cibola Burn (June 2014)
9. Book Five: Nemesis Games (June 2015)
10. Novella: The Vital Abyss (Oct. 2015)
    
11. Book Six: Babylon's Ashes (Dec. 2016)
12. Novella: Strange Dogs (July 2017)
    
13. Book Seven: Persepolis Rising (Dec. 2017)
14. Book Eight: Tiamat's Wrath (Mar. 2019)
15. Novella: Auberon (Nov. 2019)
    
16. Book Nine: Leviathan Falls (Nov. 2021)
17. Novella: The Sins of Our Fathers (Mar. 2022)

Possible Order #2: Chronological

I really don't think I would recommend this. It seems silly to me. The Expanse is definitely one of those series where the prequels are interesting because they tell you about characters you already like. Who would care about The Churn if you didn't already know Amos? And in some cases, it spoils: The Vital Abyss takes place over a span of time that ends around Cibola Burn, but builds on something revealed in Nemesis Games. But for completion's sake, here it is:

1. Short Story: "Drive" [a long time before Book One]
   
2. Novella: The Churn [some years before Book One]
   
3. Short Story: The Butcher of Anderson Station [a few years before Book One]
   
4. Book One: Leviathan Wakes
5. Book Two: Caliban's War
   
6. Novella: Gods of Risk [between Books Two and Three]
   
7. Book Three: Abaddon's Gate
8. Book Four: Cibola Burn
9. Novella: The Vital Abyss [in parallel to Books One through Four]
   
10. Book Five: Nemesis Games
11. Book Six: Babylon's Ashes
12. Novella: Strange Dogs [between Books Six and Seven]
    
13. Book Seven: Persepolis Rising
14. Novella: Auberon [between Books Seven and Eight]
    
15. Book Eight: Tiamat's Wrath
16. Book Nine: Leviathan Falls
17. Novella: The Sins of Our Fathers [after Book Nine]

My Suggested Order

I actually came up with a different order to both. The thing off-putting about the release order is the somewhat erratic way the shorts were released—some books had two shorts between them, others none. I think having a small taster between each larger work is nice. So to maintain that, "Drive" gets pushed out of sequence a bit... but it can pretty much be read anywhere.

And I think in one case the prequel actually does benefit being read first: Auberon might have come out after Book Eight, but is more interesting read prior. So here is my "machete order" for The Expanse books, which tries to alternate between full-length novels and shorts, and also doesn't put anything where it will spoil something:

1. Book One: Leviathan Wakes
   
2. Short Story: The Butcher of Anderson Station [fills in background of a character introduced in Book One]
   
3. Book Two: Caliban's War
4. Novella: Gods of Risk [follows up on a Book Two character]
   
5. Book Three: Abaddon's Gate
   
6. Novella: The Churn [sets up some stuff that is used in Book Four]
   
7. Book Four: Cibola Burn
8. Short Story: "Drive" [could go anywhere]
   
9. Book Five: Nemesis Games
10. Novella: The Vital Abyss [fills in backstory for some stuff revealed in Book Five]
    
11. Book Six: Babylon's Ashes
12. Novella: Strange Dogs [takes place in this gap]
    
13. Book Seven: Persepolis Rising
14. Novella: Auberon [released after Book Eight but works well before it]
    
15. Book Eight: Tiamat's Wrath
    
16. Book Nine: Leviathan Falls
    
17. Novella: The Sins of Our Fathers [follow-up to Book Nine]
    

It does kind of bother me that the alternating structure breaks down at the end! Maybe read The Expanse: Origins comic there, or maybe the answer is to work in "The Last Flight of the Cassandra" (a short story exclusive to the Expanse RPG sourcebook) somewhere.

My Expanse collection is a mish-mash. Mostly US trade paperbacks, but I have two UK trades and one US hardcover. Note that with the later US books, the author name and title switched prominence, but that didn't happen in the UK.